Reinforced plastics graphite carbon fibers

Based on contents of an RP other terms are used to identify an RP. Examples include glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), aramid fiber reinforced plastic (AFRP), carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), graphite fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), boron fiber reinforced plastic (BFRP), etc. 

Figure 1.8 This golf club has the strength and lightweight of aluminum yet is made from graphite (carbon) fibers reinforced with plastic. What other sports equipment is made from graphite fibers ...

High performance composites may be laminates wherein veils of carbon fiber ate treated with an epoxy resin, stacked up to the desired final product thickness, and then laminated together under heat and pressure (see Composite materials Carbon and graphite fibers). Simply mixing together carbon or glass fibers and polymeric resins to form a reinforced plastic leads to a composite material, but this is not a laminate if not constmcted from discrete phes. 

By this time the industry required a more inclusive term to describe RPs, so composite was added. Thus the name in the plastics industry became Reinforced Plastic Composites. More recently they became known only as Composites. However composites identify many other combinations of basic materials (Table 6-18). The fiber reinforcements included higher modulus glasses, carbon, graphite, boron, aramid (strongest fiber in the world, five times as strong as steel on an equal-weight basis), whiskers, and others (Table 6-20 and Figs. 6-13 and 6-14). In... 

RPs that combine two different materials (plastic matrix and reinforcement) are a separate major and important segment in the plastic industry. They are also called plastic composites and composites. There are also self-reinforcing plastics such as liquid crystal polymers (Chapter 1) and others.301 It is a fact that RPs have not come near to realizing their great potential in a multitude of applications usually due to cost limitations that particularly involves the use of expensive fiber reinforcements (carbon, graphite, silica, etc.).1 Information on thermoplastic and thermoset plastic RPs are reviewed in Chapter 15. 

Fillers used in large quantities to reinforce plastics are alumina (aluminum oxide), calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, cellulose flock, cotton (different forms), short glass fiber, glass beads, glass spheres, graphite, iron oxide powder, mica, quartz, sisal, silicon carbide, dtanium oxide, and tungsten carbide. Choice of filler varies and depends to a great extent upon the requirements of the end item and method of fabrication. 

Limited at first to the inspection of metallic components, it was later demonstrated that high-frequency magnetic fields causing eddy current production could be applied to the testing of composites containing conductive fibers, or a certain amount of graphite [108.109], Eddy current testing has been successfully applied in the detection and characterization of defects in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) panels, helicopter rotor blades, truck tires, and more [110-112]. 

The second stage involves heating the fibers for a further period at 1770 K to eliminate all elements other than carbon. This carbonization is believed to involve cross-linking of the chains to form the hexagonal graphite structure, and this final heat treatment can affect the mechanical properties to a marked extent, as shown in Figure 15.17. The major application so far is in composite structures where they act as extremely effective reinforcing fibers. These reinforced plastic composites find uses in the aircraft industry, in the small-boat trade, and as ablative composites. 

Set-up men employ carbon or graphite fiber-reinforced plastic fabrics, prepregs, supplied as pliable cloth impregnated with a liquefied binder, such as... 

Typical reinforcing agents now commonly employed in the formation of plastics include glass fiber, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, carbon black, graphite, organically modified clay, talc, graphene, and fullerene. 

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